962 

19 

•y 1 



* jdia and Ireland 



By 

Eamon De Valera 

President of the Republic of 
Ireland 




New York 

Friends of Freedom for India 

Seven East Fifteenth Street 
1920 



India and Ireland 



By 

Eamon De Valera 

President of the Republic of 
Ireland 



^ 



Twenty-five Cents 



New York 

Friends of Freedom for India 

Seven East Fifteenth Street 
1920 






DEDICATED 

To the Memory of the Martyrs Who Gave 

Their Lives to Make India and Ireland 

Free and Independent 




JUN15192J 



^ 






/^ 



INDIA AND IRELAND 



Some one hundred and forty odd 
years ago General George Washing- 
ton sent the following message to the 
patriots of Ireland: "Patriots of 
Ireland, your cause is identical with 
mine." Were George Washington 
alive now, are we not certain that he 
would repeat these same words to 
the pariots of Ireland of this day, and 
who doubts that he would couple, 
were he here tonight, the patriots of 
India with the patriots of Ireland? 
Is it not directly in accord with 
Washington's thought then that 
speaking for the patriots of Ireland I 
should say here: ''Patriots of India, 
your cause is identical with ours?" 
Washington's message united the 
people of Ireland and the people of 



America in a closer bond of sympathy 
than ever before, a bond which has 
endured during the years that have 
intervened since Washington wrote, 
a bond whose strength is only being 
fully realized today. I trust this mes- 
sage of mine will unite the people of 
India and the people of Ireland in a 
similar union of mutual understand- 
ing which will go on strengthening 
during the years. 

That message of Washington has 
been a constant inspiration to the 
people of Ireland. It was a message 
of hope, for Washington's cause had 
definitely triumphed. It was a mes- 
sage of advice, for he told the secret 
of success — his secret. 

"Champions of Liberty in all 
lands," he wrote, "be strong in hope. 
You are calumniated in your day; I 
was misrepresented by the loyalists 
of my day. Had I failed, the scaffold 

4 



would have been my doom. But 
now my enemies pay me honor. Had 
I failed, I would have deserved the 
same honor. I stood true to my 
cause, even when victory had fled. 
In that I merited success. You must 
act likewise." 

Patriots of India, I believe that 
message will be for you the inspira- 
tion it has been to us. You must act 
as we have tried to act — as Washing- 
ton acted. We must all be true to 
our cause even when victory has fled, 
confident that, after our Valley Forge 
will come surely our Yorktown. 

(From a remark of one of the prev- 
ious speakers it might have been in- 
ferred that Ireland was conquered by 
Britain. No, Ireland was never con- 
quered. No nation, that, like Wash- 
ington, stands true to its cause under 
ail circumstances, ever is conquered. 
A nation is conquered only when it 
abandons its cause, and definitely 



gives way to despair. Ireland has 
never done that and her conduct in 
the past is a surety that she will never 
do it. We in Ireland, comparatively 
small in numbers, close to the seat 
of Britain's imperial power, have 
never despaired. You, people of In- 
dia, remote from her, a continent in 
yourselves, seventy times as numer- 
ous as we are, surely you do not de- 
spair — surely you will not despairj^ 

A few years ago a British secre- 
tary of state for India in the British 
House of Commons tried to make 
light of charges that the British were 
bleeding India to death. He said 
that all such statements were mere 
assertions without any evidence in 
fact. That remark brought forth a 
book, "Prosperous British India," by 
William Digby, of which many of you 
may know. I was looking through it 
today. It gives the facts, it shows 
the British imperial system in 



operation, it gives the details, but do 
we need such a book to know that it 
is not for the purpose of doing good 
that the British maintain their rule 
in India? 

Is there any man or woman here 
tonight or anywhere in the wide world 
who really believes that it is in order 
to benefit the people of India that 
Britain insists on holding India 
against the Indian people's will? Do 
you think it is because the British 
really think they can govern the peo- 
ple of India better than the people of 
India can govern themselves? Do 
you think they keep on in India be- 
cause they want to improve the con- 
ditions of the Indians, morally or 
materially? Do you think it is be- 
cause they really regard the Indians 
as a backward people who need their 
assistance to lead them to the way 
of prosperity and civilization, that 



they persist in remaining there de- 
spite the people of India? 

Should any person think in this 
wise and should be inclined to credit 
British professions of this sort I would 
ask them what imperial nation yet 
has shown itself so selfless, so gener- 
ous, so apostolic, and I would ask 
them in particular when or where has 
the British Empire shown such altru- 
ism? Where we need facts to con- 
vince us is not when the thing is as 
we would expect it to be, but when 
things are different from what we 
would naturally expect them to be. 

We do not need books to convince 
us that the imperial motive is greed. 
We should need many books to con- 
vince us that it is not greed. We do 
not need books to convince us that 
no nation has ruled another well. We 
should rather need books, and many 
books, to convince us that there ever 
has been an exception to that rule. 

8 



( When has it ceased to be, "Woe to 
those on whose judgment seats the 
stranger sits — at whose gate the 
stranger watches?^' 

Mr. Digby's book tells us how 
Britain has drained India of its 
wealth, of the accumulated capital 
begot by the toil of centuries, until 
India today has no capital at all, no 
resources to enable it to embark on 
any project of industry, no resources 
to enable it even to subsist until the 
harvest of its present labors is come. 
A wealthy country, poverty-stricken, 
a frugal people in starvation, de- 
prived by the robber of everything, 
even the right to live, is the picture 
he gives. But should we wonder? 
Do we not know that "the nation that 
loses its independence loses its rev- 
enue : 

(Citizens of other countries may 
be shocked when they learn that 
32,000,000 of human beings were 



starved to death last year in India. 
Citizens of the United States, think 
of it! It is a number such as if al- 
most one in every three of your 
people were stricken down by the 
most terrible of deaths, the linger- 
ing death from hunger. Think of the 
agonies of the husbands, the wives 
and the mothers, the torture of the 
little ones. It must shock you to 
realize what that means, you who live 
in this land of opportunity and 
plenty. But, terrible as it is, it does 
not surprise us in Ireland who know 
what British rule means. It is with- 
in the memory of men, living in Ire- 
land when this same British rule 
struck down in the same manner, 
not one in every ten as in India, 
but one in every five, in a land no 
less fertile than India and people no 
less active and industrious. And the 
shooting of an unarmed, a harmless, 
protesting multitude, and the hang- 
ings and the floggings — we have not 

10 



to go back far in Irish history to 
know of these. The British fright- 
fulness of the General Dyers is noth- 
ing new to us. 

I do not think anyone anywhere 
needs a book of facts to be convinced 
that the British have bled India to 
death, not only in wealth but in ac- 
tual blood, but if anyone does need 
such a book it is not an Irishman or 
one who has read the history of Ire- 
land. 

The books tell us that Britain has 
plundered India. Of course she has 
plundered India; what else is she in 
India for? The books only settle the 
question whether it is a few billions 
more or less. 

The books tell us that almost per- 
petual famine reigns in India. Of 
course there is bound to be famine 
when an alien power's greed takes 
away all the wealth and all the food 
that its forces can extract. The figures 

11 



in the book only tell us whether the 
number who die are a few million 
more or less. 

The books give us the instances of 
the exercise of the brute power of 
armed force. Do we not know, with-' 
out the recital of the individual atroc- 
ities, that it is only under the in- 
fluence of a reign of frightfulness 
and of terror that men with warm 
blood in their veins would allow the 
food which is needed for their moth- 
ers and wives and children — the 
food which a bounteous providence 
has supplied — to be filched away 
from them by an enemy marauder. 
There are a thousand native Indians 
to one foreigner. Isn't it obvious 
that the Dyers must be there, else the 
imperial robbery would not be al- 
lowed to continue? All the books 
can tell us is whether the number 
shot is a few thousand more or less. 

12 



And do we need the proof of fig- 
ures to be certain that the imperial 
master, fearful that the people will 
understand, will unite and, acting in 
concert, will end his tyranny over 
night, ever does his utmost to keep 
the people apart, to exterminate them 
where he can and to plunge them in 
ignorance where he cannot safely ex- 
terminate them? 

: A British statesman once spoke of 
the increasing Irish population as a 
menace to Britain, and in a few years 
an artificial famine was brought 
about and they killed off our people 
by the million. Do we doubt that 
in full consciousness, they act like- 
wise today in India? The people of 
India, we are told by the British 
apologists, are backward and igno- 
rant, lazy and unable to rule them- 
selves. They have made exactly the 
same pretense about Ireland at other 
times. The Indians are "mere" 

13 



Asiatics, we are told. We were the 
"mere" Irish. Irishmen, anyhow 
should not be deceived by the Brit- 
ish cant about the Indians. 

All peoples are necessarily back- 
ward when you deliberately debar 
them from progress. They are nec- 
essarily ignorant when you shut them 
out from education and withhold 
knowledge from them. They are 
necessarily lazy when you deprive 
them of the means or the incentive 
to work. They are necessarily un- 
able to rule themselves when you 
deprive them of all opportunity for 
trying. One cannot swim if the 
water to swim in, or the opportunity 
to enter it, is denied. 

No thinking person should be 
fooled by pretenses such as these. I 
hope the Friends of Freedom for 
India will extract from Mr. Digby's 
book, and others like it the facts and 
figures they contain and present them 

14 



in a form in which they can be 
readily grasped by the busy Amer- 
ican. But surely no American need 
wait for these facts to be convinced 
that the British are in India, not for 
India's good but to exploit India and 
the Indians, and that to ensure the 
continuance of their exploitation the 
British do not hesitate to resort to 
any means, no matter how revolting 
and how cruel, provided these means 
appear to them the readiest and most 
effective for their purpose. Dyer had 
to shoot the people of India else the 
British Empire could not endure in 
India. He was nothing but a faith- 
ful servant of his imperial masters, 
and as a faithful, trusty servant they 
promoted him for his deeds. 

It has become a fashion to say that 
it is only the Enghsh ruling classes 
who are to blame. I am ready to ad- 
mit that it is they who benefit the 
most directly by the exploitation, but 

15 



the British laboring man is often the 
loudest in proclaiming the demo- 
cratic nature of the British system of 
government. The British laboring 
man can no longer be excused on the 
plea of ignorance. The common 
citizen's vote it is that maintains his 
government in power; it is in his 
name that the government acts. He 
is responsible for the acts of his gov- 
ernment if he does not bring that 
government to book. I hold that the 
British system being what it is, and 
the power being in the average voter's 
hand if he will exercise it, the whole 
British nation, every part of it, is 
equally responsible. 

\They will pretend to throw up 
their hands in horror at the deeds of 
their General Dyers, but, as I have 
said, the Dyers are the necessary in- 
struments of their imperial system. 
The government that maintains that 
system is their government, the res- 

16 



ponsibility is their responsibility, and 
we should not help them to evade the 
responsibility, and evade the blame.^ 
The laboring classes can bring about 
a change if they want to; if they do 
not they are guilty with the others, 
and when representatives of these 
classes come to their fellow laborers 
in America we believe the Americans 
will not be slow to remind them of 
this fact. 

The rule of the people by a for- 
eign despot is a terrible thing, but 
the rule of a people by a foreign 
democracy is the worst of all, for it 
is the most irresponsible of all. 

(^Another frequent pretense is that 
these questions, like the question of 
India and the question of Ireland, are 
in their very nature difficult and 
"knotty." My friends, you know 
well there is no peculiar difficulty in 
them. They are the same simple 
problems which, as individuals, we 

17 



have to face whenever there is a con- 
flict between our consciences direct- 
ing us to do right and our selfish in- 
clinations inducing us to do what we 
know is wrong. 

There is little difficulty in solving 
these problems except the difficulty 
there is in doing what we know to be 
the right thing when our instincts 
make us wish to do something dif- 
ferent. The British government, the 
British nation, the British laboring 
classes, cannot have it both ways any 
more than the individual can. They, 
no more than we, can compromise 
with justice and right. 

We must not be satisfied simply 
with admiring the right and talking 
about it. We must nerve ourselves 
to do the right! and so must govern- 
ments, and there is no justification 
for them if they refuse. 

We of Irish blood ought to have 
no difficulty in seeing through the 

18 



pretenses of the British Government 
when it is unwiUing to do right. We 
ought to have no diificulty in under- 
standing the troubles of the people 
of India, and they, in their turn, 
should have no difficulty in under- 
standing those of the people of Ire- 
land. They should find in the story 
of Ireland's struggle against Britain 
much also that will be of value to 
them. 

I commend a careful study of that 
story to our Indian friends here to- 
night. Conditions in India and Ire- 
land are, no doubt, in many respects 
dissimilar, as I pointed out at the 
start. Ireland is a small nation with- 
in easy striking distance of the center 
of Britain's power; India is, in num- 
bers, a mighty nation and far re- 
moved. These different conditions 
suggest different tactics. 

But there is one lesson that Ire- 
land's struggle teaches very plainly. 

19 



It is only through the influence of 
fear and the pressure of force that 
Britain has ever been brought to con- 
sider even partially the claims of Ire- 
land. We have never been able to 
achieve anything except when we 
compelled England to rule us with 
the naked sword. It is, of course, 
always by the sword that she has 
maintained herself in Ireland, as in 
India, but she prefers to maintain 
herself with the sword in its scabbard 
if she can. 

The English are very sensitive to 
what the world thinks of them. They 
have long played the hypocrite with 
success; they hate now to see the 
mask torn from them. Today they 
are more afraid of it than ever, for 
their conduct at the Peace Confer- 
ence has made them suspect to the 
whole world. 

The great moral forces of the world 
are with India and with Ireland to- 

20 



day. We must use them to the full, 
but we must never forget that we 
must ultimately rely upon ourselves 
if we are to be successful. The pol- 
icy of Sinn Fein, precisely because it 
is ultimately this policy of self-re- 
liance, has made Ireland stronger to- 
day than she has ever been. It must 
be reliance upon ourselves to endure 
everything, to brave everything which 
the advancement of our cause may 
require. Men who are ready to face 
death for what they know to be right 
cannot be beaten, cannot fail to be 
victorious. ^.^^ 

And here I come to the policy of 
physical force. Can we, struggling 
for our freedom, afford to fling away 
any weapon by which nations in the 
past have achieved their freedom; 
any weapon by which, in conceivable 
circumstances, nations may win their 
freedom? We in Ireland hold today 
that we may not. On that account 

21 



our opponents call us the physical 
force party. But we are not a physi- 
cal force party only. The fact that 
we are making an appeal to the moral 
forces of the world is sufficient to 
show that we do not rely upon the 
sword as the only weapon. 

If those who advocate the use of 
moral force only assist us now that 
we appeal to them, there will be no 
need of any appeal to the other forces. 
No one appeals to physical force ex- 
cept as a last resort when there is no 
hope of securing justice otherwise. 

But if the world looks on callous- 
ly, how can the people of India help 
thinking that it would be a better 
death for the 32,000,000 of their 
countrymen and countrywomen to 
die even on the bayonets of their op- 
pressors than to die passively the 
lingering death of starvation? We 
have thought in this way in Ireland 
of those who died in the Irish famine 

22 



when British bayonets were allowed 
to take away for export the food that 
our people needed if they were not 
to die. 

I am sure the people of India can- 
not help thinking as we thought, and 
it is not for those who refuse to give 
the moral assistance within their 
power to give, to deny them or to 
deny us the last resort of all, the 
sword. 

If ever the sword was legitimate, 
it is in a case such as ours. It can 
only be a question of prudence, when 
and where and how we should use it. 
Like Thomas Francis Meagher, we 
of today in Ireland will not stigma- 
tize the sword, but there is no peo- 
ple upon the whole earth who so 
desire that a world condition should 
be brought about in which the sword 
should become unnecessary as we do. 

And if those who decry physical 
force only make half the effort to 

23 



bring it about that we are making, 
it will speedily come. But until it 
comes and while endeavoring to bring 
it about, we of Ireland and you of 
India must each of us endeavor, both 
as separate peoples and in combina- 
tion, to rid ourselves of the vampire 
that is fattening on our blood, and 
we must never allow ourselves to for- 
get what weapon it was by which 
Washington rid his country of this 
same vampire. Our cause is a com- 
mon cause. We swear friendship to- 
night; and we send our common 
greetings and our pledges to our 
brothers in Egypt and in Persia, and 
tell them also that their cause is our 
cause. — Address delivered at the 
India Freedom Dinner of the Friends 
of Freedom for India, on February 
28, 1920, at the Central Opera 
House, New York City. 



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